Sf Valley

Poly (3-4) was a surprise in the North Hollywood tournament, losing to Bell-Jeff, 83-77, in the first round, but defeating North Hollywood, 61-48, and Birmingham, 87-78, to win the consolation championship. Scott Cooper led the charge, averaging a tournament-high 26.3 points a game, including 32 points on 13-of-19 shooting in the victory over Birmingham. "He's starting to come into his own," Poly Coach Jay Werner said of Cooper.

In a battle of extremely unofficial 4-A Division good-luck charms last week, can chalk up one for Kennedy. The Golden Cougars traditionally hang a pair of coconuts from the dugout wall at games. Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, the coconuts were sitting atop the third-base dugout as Kennedy beat Palisades, 4-3, for the City Section title. Hart brought its pair of good-luck horseshoes to Saturday's Southern Section final with Cerritos, and Coach Bud Murray hung them on the third-base dugout railing as soon as the team took the field for warm-ups.

Despite the fact that All-Southern Section selection Jason Edwards has yet to pitch, Hart High (11-1) is ranked fourth in the nation by USA Today, thanks in part to the contributions of two underclassmen. Junior left-hander Andrew Lorraine is 4-0 with a 1.06 earned-run average and sophomore right-hander Keith Halcovich is 3-1 with a 1.75 ERA. The staff ERA is 1.78.

Taft High's Glenn Nahmias draws little recognition, yet he is establishing himself as one of the Valley's best hitters. Nahmias, a senior outfielder, is batting .435 with 17 runs batted in, three home runs, three triples and six doubles--all team highs--and is working on a 14-game hitting streak. Last season, Nahmias batted .406 with 21 RBIs and seven doubles--all team highs. Batting: Del Marine of El Camino Real raised his average from .192 to .342 in two games last week after going seven for nine.

Fighting back against the growing popularity of smartphone-based ride-sharing services, one traditional taxi company in Los Angeles has rolled out an app that makes it easy to summon and pay for a ride. The app, developed by Flywheel Software Inc., a San Francisco startup, has enabled about 300 of the region's 2,300 official taxis to pick up passengers who request a taxi ride using an Android or Apple mobile device. “We work with legal, safe and reliable taxi fleets,” Flywheel Chief Executive Steve Humphreys said.

Unless Birmingham (7-11, 3-5 in East Valley League play) finishes the season with a rush, Elliot Turret will experience the first losing season of his coaching career. Turret led the Braves to an 11-8 record last season, including a 7-3 mark in Northwest Valley League play, and guided Santa Monica Crossroads to three Southern Section 1-A Division championships and two runner-up finishes from 1981-86. Crossroads compiled a 105-32 record during that span.

It appears that Valley high school teams in the City Section 3-A Division could teach their counterparts in the 4-A Division a thing or two about throwing the football. Although typically more successful through the air than their 3-A neighbors, 4-A teams this season often have had negative results with the passing game.

REPRESENTATIVES OF the 62 leagues in the Southern Section will vote Thursday on whether to repeal three rules regarding outside competition by athletes. Item 1: Rule 2712 of the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Constitution reads: "A member of a high school soccer team may not, during his or her season of sport, compete for an outside team in the sport of soccer." Item 2: Rule 2712.

Lance Moore of Burroughs of Ridgecrest shot down Canyon, 57-54, in a Golden League game last week with a shooting technique that he learned from Canyon Coach Greg Hayes. Moore scored a game-high 14 points, including 12 in the second half, to lead the first-place Burros. Moore also hit a critical fourth-quarter 3-point shot that proved to be the difference in the game. When Moore approached Hayes afterward, the player attributed his performance to his one-time instructor.

July 21, 1993 | JULIE TAMAKI, Researched and written by Julie Tamaki / Los Angeles Times

The recent decision of the Los Angeles City Council to ban smoking in restaurants, which goes into effect Monday, is part of a growing trend, particularly in California. Among the 56 cities and counties that have banned smoking in restaurants nationally, 49 of them are in California. Recent reports of the hazards of secondhand smoke have fueled drives to clamp down on smoking in public.